M.Sc.

Botany (Semester II)

Course Title : Systematics and Evolution

Unit I: History of developments in taxonomy

Dr Ram Prasad
Department of Botany
Mahatma Gandhi Central University
Motihar, Bihar
 Pre-Linnaean taxonomy

• Earliest taxonomy

• The Greeks and Romans

• The Herbalists

• Early taxonomists
 Earliest Taxonomy
• Folk taxonomy, which is of great importance in
ethnobiological studies
• Ancient taxonomy usually mean the history in the
Western world, starting with Romans and Greek.
However, the earliest traces are not from the West, but
from the East
• Eastern taxonomic works were not known to the
Western world until the Middle Ages and could thus
not influence the progress of Western sciences.
• Earliest pharmacopoeias was written by Shen
Nung, Emperor of China around 3000 BC.
• “Father of Chinese Medicine”
• Introduced acupuncture. He wanted to
educate his people in agriculture and
medicine
• The pharmacopoeia Divine Husbandman's
Materia Medica included 365 medicines
derived from minerals, plants, and animals.
• Around 1500 BC medicinal plants were
illustrated on wall paintings in Egypt. The
paintings gives us knowledge about medicinal
plants
 The Greeks and Romans
Aristotle (384–322 BC) The Greek philosopher Aristotle was the first
to classify all living things, specially on animals (vertebrates and
invertebrates)
Theophrastus (370–285 BC) Student of Aristotle and Plato.
Wrote a classification of all known plants, De Historia Plantarum,
which contained 480 species.
Dioscorides (40–90 AD) wrote De Materia Medica, which contained
around 600 species. The classification in his work is based on the
medicinal properties of the species.
Plinius (23–79 AD) wrote book Naturalis Historia, a work of 160
voumes, described several plants and gave them Latin names.
 The Herbalists

• This was the time of the different herbals written

by herbalists like Brunfels, Bock, Fuchs, Mattioli,
Turner, L’Obel, Gerard, L’Ecluse

• With time the herbals became more and more

original with more elaborate woodcuts as
illustrations.
 Early taxonomists
▪ Andrea Caesalpino (1519–1603) Italian Scientist,
called as "the first taxonomist".

• In 1583 he wrote De Plantis

• Worked on 1500 species

• Classification based on growth habit

together with fruit and seed form
▪ Gaspard or Caspard Bauhin (Swiss Scientists)
• Wrote the book Pinax Theatri Botanici in 1623, work
is a listing of 6000 species
• The Bauhin brothers included synonymes
• Recognized genera and species as
major taxonomic levels.
 John Ray (1627–1705), English naturalist

• Establishment of species as the ultimate unit of

taxonomy

• In 1682, published Methodus Plantarum Nova, which

contained around 18 000 plant species

• Classification was based on many combined characters

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656–1708)

• French Scientist
• Constructed a botanical classification that came to
rule in botanical taxonomy
• In 1700, published Institutiones Rei Herbariae, in
which around 9000 species were listed
• Primary emphasis on the classification of genera, and
many genera were accepted by Linnaeus
• Classification was based on floral characters
 Linnaean era
▪ Starting point of modern taxonomy

▪ Transforming botany and zoology into a science

Starting point of modern taxonomy
• Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778 ) Swedish Scientist,
are regarded as the starting points of modern
botanical and zoological taxonomy
• The global flora Species Plantarum, published
in 1753 and 10th edition of Systema Naturae
in 1758 including global fauna
• Linnaeus introduced "trivial names" for both
plants and animals. The trivial names were
intended for fieldwork and education
• Linnaeus counted 8530 species of flowering
plants in 1753.
 Transforming botany and zoology into a science

• Carl Linnaeus started his career by publishing in 1735

called Systema Naturae (all living things)

• Introduced the sexual system of plants, an artificial

classification based on the sexual parts of the flower
(stamens and pistils)

• Linnaeus published several books that would transform

botany and zoology into sciences
• In 1735, he published Critica botanica, with rules for the
formulation of generic names

• In 1735, Genera Plantarum with a list of all known genera

• In 1736, Fundamental botanica and Philosophia botanica in
1751, created rules for species descriptions, terminology,
and even instructions on how to build a proper herbarium
• Terms created like corolla, stamen, filament, anther,
mammalia.
• He give the foundation for botany and zoology, and it was
now time for subsequent taxonomists to improve this
newborn science.
 Post-Linnaean taxonomy
.
▪ Natural system emerging in France

▪ Rules for nomenclature

▪ From phenetics to phylogenies

▪ The Phylocode
 Natural system emerging in France
▪ Georges-Luise Leclerc de Buffon (1707–1788):
His theories touched upon development of species,
infraspecific variety & acquired inherited characters in
species
▪ Michel Adanson (1727–1806)
• wrote Familles des Plantes in 1763
• The idea that in classification one should not put
greater emphasis on some characters than on others,
but use a great range of characters
▪ Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (1748–1836)
• Changed the system of plants with Genera Plantarum
in 1789,
• A natural system based on many characters that
came to be a foundation of modern classification. He
divided the plants into acotyledons, monocotyledons
and dicotyledons
▪ Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (1744–1829)
launched an evolutionary theory including inheritance
of acquired characters, named the "Lamarckism
 Phenetics to phylogenies

• Charles Darwin (1809–1822) and Alfred Russel Wallace

(1823–1913) launched the evolutionary theory in 1858
• German biologists, Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919) and
August Wilhelm Eichler (1839–18878) the construction
of evolutionary trees
• Haeckel proposed the term "phylogeny".
In the 20th century was dominated by extended
phenetics, i.e. looking for similarities and differences to
create systematics
 PhyloCode

• The PhyloCode reflects a philosophical shift from

naming species and subsequently classifying them
(i.e., into higher taxa) to naming both species and
clades.

• The main idea with the PhyloCode is that only

species and clades should have names, and that all
ranks above species are excluded from
nomenclature.
 Acknowledgements
• From the lectures of Mariette Manktelow, Dept of Systematic
Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University
• Pandey BP (2010) A Textbook of Botany: Angiosperms. S.
Chand & Co. Ltd. (ISBN: 9788121904049, 9788121904049)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poaceae
• I apologize to all authors whose findings could not be
substantiated or cited in our presentation due to reasons of
brevity
Thank you for your attention